So You're Saying I've Got A Chance

Tania’s POV

Sulphur River Pack

I woke in the morning suddenly, my stomach heaving. I pushed my way clear of Bobby’s arms and ran into the bathroom, barely getting there before I started to throw up. He came up behind me, pulling my hair back as I finished retching. I leaned back on my heels and he went to the sink, filling up a paper cup with mouthwash. I rinsed my mouth out as I flushed the toilet, spitting the green stuff in the swirling waters. “Are you all right,” he asked me as he held out his hand.

“Yeah,” I said. “Doc warned me this would happen.” I wasn’t free of the drugs I had been addicted to while in captivity. Insomnia, chills, nausea, it could all come at any time and it did. My body was a mess, and Bobby was there for all of it.

“I’ll give you a few minutes. Breakfast is coming up in forty minutes, so I’ll check on Phillip if you want to take a shower.” He closed the door and I went to the sink. I brushed my teeth, thinking about how far I had come in a few short weeks. I was off the drugs, I was free, I had a mate, a son and a Pack. If I had a wolf, I’d be complete.

Bobby and I were slowly making progress. Since that day at the swimming hole, we’d become more comfortable with each other. We slept together, but he still hadn’t mated me. The memories were still too much for me to get over.

He was chipping away at my defenses rapidly.

He was a good man, a good mate. He adored me, he protected me and he was showing himself a fine man and wolf to our son. He didn’t push himself in as a replacement to his father, he was just there for him. Watching him play fight with our son in wolf form was my new favorite thing to see.

Phillip had been struggling as well; he missed his mother and father and wasn’t old enough to understand why it all happened. He was prone to mood changes, crying fits and even physical outbursts. He’d shoved another child in the nursery, then he’d curled up in a ball and cried for an hour.

Thank Luna for the people around us. The Alphas kept him at night, getting him through the worst of the homesickness he was feeling. The nannies and the other children were bringing him slowly out of his shell. He’d fallen in with Austin and Sandy, his dominant cousins, and the Triple Terrors were continually challenging their minders.

I finished up, thinking about what would be happening today. The Pack was relieved that Randall had made it through his change and couldn’t wait to see him again. The Alphas had announced that the pair, plus Erica and four vampires, would be arriving late tonight and would be guests for several weeks. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that; vampires were always our enemy, and I was taught to never trust them. Talia did, and that was enough for the Alphas. I’d just have to get over it.

I walked out into the room. Bobby had already made the bed and laid out an outfit for me. Khaki shorts, a light cotton blouse, and sheer lace underwear. I swear that boy has a lingerie fetish, and his sisters encouraged it. All my underwear was either sexy or for workouts, nothing for just lounging around in sweats. His sisters and in-laws were the ones who got my sizes and went into town to get me “a few outfits.” When we got back to our room that day, the bed was covered with shopping bags, and I now had a good chunk of our closet. The clothes were beautiful, I thought as I got dressed.

I heard little feet running to the door and smiled as I walked to it. The door pushed open, and a boy in tighty whities ran in and jumped into my arms. I lifted him up and gave him a raspberry on his bare stomach, causing him to laugh and try to get away. “Where are your jammies, Phillip?”

“Too hot. Gramma kept hugging me,” he said.

“Well, Grandma loves you and you’re such a good snuggler,” I said as I put him down. Bobby went to the dresser and pulled out some shorts and a “Wolfy Time” T-shirt along with sandals. “Are you excited about your run this morning?”

The children were going on a tracking exercise in the woods. They would go about five miles out from the Pack House as a group, where they would meet a group of adult volunteers. Each of the adults had come to that place on a different path. The pups would be assigned an adult scent to follow, and would have to track back to the Pack House while being watched. If they made it back, they got to play in the pool until lunch. Lose the trail, and they would get extra help in tracking. It was another way to teach them to function as Pack members. “Mom said I’ve got a great nose,” he said. “Mom coming?”

“Mom is gone, honey,” I said as I pulled him into my lap. “I’m sorry. Momma and Papa are here now.”

He looked up at me, his little lip quivering. “I miss Mom,” he said. “You not Mom.” I just held him to my chest as he cried, and I cried too. There were plenty of people who deserved punishment, but my boy was getting hurt too. He’d lost his parents, his friends, his home, all gone when he woke up in a new place.

He was still not talking at breakfast, and when we dropped him off at child care I told them what was going on. “Don’t worry, we’ll pull him out of his funk,” she said.

“Thanks.” I walked back to the Alpha Floor and joined Bobby, who was in the room with his leadership. “You needed to speak to me Alpha?”

“Yes,” he said as I sat next to Bobby on the couch. I relaxed into his side, my hand clutching his. “I got this video from Alpha Clark this morning, along with a request.” He put the video clip up on the screen, and I was shocked at what I was seeing.

The silver cage containing Justin Heranus was coated with blood. He was lying on the floor of the cage, naked and filthy, and he was out of his mind with pain. As the man with the camera got closer, I could see why. The leg Talia had bitten was swollen, the skin black and split open like a ham that had cooked too long. The red and black was spreading, almost to his chest. Flies swarmed him, feeding from the blood that oozed from his wounds. It wouldn’t be long until maggots were eating the dead flesh while the rest of him lived. “Kill me, please,” he moaned in agony.

The camera shifted to where Rhoda was chained by an ankle to a rock in the ground. She was dressed, but she was unhappy and sleeping as far away from her mate as she could get. “She’s been like this since she found out what he did,” Clark said. “I’m convinced she didn’t know what he did to get their son.” The video stopped and picked up again in the Pack cells. Beta Jack was chained to the wall, and had been beaten badly and tortured. “We found out a few interesting things about Jack Meoffe when we got him talking,” Clark said. “The Alpha told him to ‘get rid of her’, expecting him to kill her and dispose of the body. He owed his bookie a debt and used her to pay it off. He figured as a human and a slave, she wouldn’t last long anyway. We got a name, though. Joey ‘Bag of Donuts’ Venucci. He’s a mobster out of Chicago. Make sure Randall gets the name. As for this asshole, we aren’t getting any more out of him. When he wakes up, we’ll take him upstairs and let him ride the post until he’s dead.”

“Fuck, that’s a bad way to go,” Dusty said.

Clark looked at the camera. “Justin won’t last more than a day or two, and I need to know what you want to do with Rhoda given what we know now. I’ll wait for your call.” The file ended, and I was still staring at the screen. I knew Talia’s venom would kill him, but that was a horrible way to die. Not that he didn’t deserve it.

“What is riding the post?”

Dusty looked at his father who nodded to tell me. “They bury a pipe In the ground, set in concrete. The man being punished is stripped, his hands shackled behind him, then with a little lube he’s lowered onto the pipe until his ass is speared on it. It’s high enough he can’t get off, even on his tiptoes. Eventually his legs give out and he sinks farther until it tears his guts apart and he dies of sepsis or blood loss.”

“Damn,” I said.

“He deserves every moment of pain, Tania. Rhoda, that’s more difficult. She told her mate to go ahead with a plan to use a surrogate, but didn’t know you were kidnapped and underage. She’s lost her wolf, and will not be welcomed in any Pack again. Do you want her dead?”

I thought about it; I didn’t want to kill Phillip’s mom, but I didn’t want her in his life either. “Where do I stand with Phillip? He’s my son, DNA will prove that, but his birth certificate lists Justin and Rhoda.” We talked about it for a while before we came up with a plan.

Alpha Brent called the La Crosse pack and Alpha Clark answered. “Good morning Clark, it’s Brent. We’ve been discussing your video, Tania and Bobby are here. We agree with your sentences on Justin and Jack. Circulating the videos among the Pack will go a long way to showing this behavior will never be tolerated,” he said.

“Has Tania decided about Rhoda?”

“I have, Alpha Clark. Have papers drafted up where she gives up her parental rights to Phillip and consents to a closed adoption. With her husband dead, the papers will let Bobby and I adopt him easily and get a new birth certificate. Then let her go, knowing she will never see him again.”

“If she refuses to sign?”

“Then I will swear a statement out that Justin raped and impregnated me and stole my child. The FBI will get involved since it went across state lines, and DNA will prove he’s mine. With Justin dead, she’ll face conspiracy to kidnapping, rape and everything else that happened to me. She’ll die an old lady in Federal prison.”

“I see your point. I will make it happen, Tania. If there is anything else we can do, just let us know.”

“I will, Uncle Clark.”

“How is Erica doing? I haven’t heard from her since she left with Talia and Randall.”

Brent laughed. “I should have told you, but she found her mate in New Orleans. They’re arriving here tonight.”

I heard a squeal in the background that must have been Luna Teri. “EXCELLENT! It’s about time she got some good news. I’m glad he accepted her.”

“Well, he’s a little different too. They are making it work, and they are both happy from what I hear.”

“And Randall?”

“He’s fine. They were able to fix it so Talia can fully mate with him, and they have. They’re coming too.”

“All right, I’ll let you guys go. Talia, you and your family are always welcome here if you decide you need snow again.”

I laughed. “Thank you, Uncle. The heat down here is intense, but you don’t have to shovel it.” We hung up the phone, and I relaxed back into the couch. “We have to give Randall that name.”

“I agree.” Brent called Talia’s number, not knowing if Randall would be busy.

“Dad?” Her voice sounded tired.

“Hi Talia. I just talked to Alpha Brent. He got a name out of Beta Jack.” He told her the details.

“Thanks, Dad. I’ll see what my mate knows about it, and get Eduardo looking. The man is a whiz with computers.”

“He’s your next target?”

“He is. We take down the training complex, then find the customer list. Tell Tania we’ll get these bastards.”

I smiled. “I know you will, Sis. I love you.”

“I love you too. We’ll see you late tonight.”

Our business done, we walked to the home of Mildred Childress, one of the Pack Elders and historian. She had told us at breakfast that she needed to talk with us, but not why. Her home was small, with flowers out front and a wide porch with a pair of rocking chairs. She was bringing out a tray with homemade lemonade as we arrived, since Bobby must have warned her over the link. “Elder Mildred,” Bobby said with a bow of his head as we got to the stairs.

“Bobby, bring that girl up here and sit her down,” she said with a smile. “Go inside and get a chair for yourself unless you want to stand.”

He smirked, then sat down and pulled me into his lap. Mildred huffed, then sat down and offered me a glass. “I’ve been looking into what happened to you since I heard you were coming,” she said. “Giving up your wolf happens sometimes, having your wolf taken is quite different. I wanted to know if it was possible to get your wolf back.”

“It’s not,” I said. “It’s never happened.”

“Oh, these young people don’t know their history,” she said with a wave. “It can happen, it’s just that the circumstances allowing it rarely happen. I talked to my friends in other Packs, and Natasha in Kiev found something in her Pack archives. It was a case, like yours, where a young woman had been captured and was forced to drink wolfsbane to kill her wolf. The attacking Pack killed the wolves of all their captives, destroying the Pack forever, they thought."

“That’s horrible,” I said.

“This happened in the fourth century. It’s written down because she got her wolf back.”

“How?” I leaned forward, hope suddenly there.

“She found her mate.”